Pittswood Birds

The sun shone for the first 20 minutes of the day, before the default weather of dark clouds and wind returned !

It remained dry though, so I had a full patch walk, where in the four hours, I recorded just 38 species, a terrible total, with species like Collared Dove, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Coal Tit and  Bulfinch all unrecorded, although the first 3 of those species were later seen at my garden feeders, so they were out there somewhere! Overall numbers of birds were down too, the only decent gatherings were of the SISKIN and GOLDFINCH at the Greenhouse Grounds, which had risen to 50-60 birds, plus the mixed flock feeding on the seed I have been spreading under the hedgerow, where 5 GREENFINCH, 5 CHAFFINCH, 4 GREAT TITS, 4 BLUE TITS, a couple of DUNNOCKS and a ROBIN enjoyed the sunflower hearts.There was also a flock of 50+ BLACK HEADED GULLS on one of the paddocks at Migrant Alley.

I did record the three regular raptor species of KESTREL, SPARROWHAWK and BUZZARD though, these and flyovers from HERRING GULL, FIELDFARE, REDWING, SKYLARK, LESSER REDPOLL and MISTLETHRUSH, were a big part of the meager day list.

At least 4 MEADOW PIPITS were on the Ashes lane Fields, but the Wet Woods and Scrubby Woods were particularly quiet this morning, LONG TAILED TIT, NUTHATCH, TREECREEPER, and GOLDCREST being the best of what was seen. The lakes were back to normal after yesterdays visiting Teal, with just 4 MALLARDS and a few MOORHEN present.

With nothing to add to the months list, the species tally remains on 58, which is the eighth best November total out of 14.

Once again it was far too gloomy to get any bird photo's, so another image less post!